A microchip manufacturing process may form a photosensitive film or photoresist on one or more deposited layers on a wafer. A photolithography system may transmit light through transmissive optics or reflect light from reflective optics to a reticle or patterned mask. Light from the reticle transfers a patterned image onto the photoresist. Portions of the photoresist which are exposed to light may be removed. Portions of the wafer which are not protected by the remaining photoresist may be etched to form transistor features.
A microchip manufacturing process may require several lithography processes to be implemented at the wafer level. The pattern imprinted onto the wafer by the photolithography process at different levels is replicated from the reticle. One reticle may be used to reproducibly imprint thousands of wafers. The reticle may be subjected to handling during its lifetime. There may be a pellicle to protect the reticle from particle contamination deposited onto the pellicalized reticle due to environment and handling.